[GreenKeys] What is to become of NADCOMM?

[Don Robert House]

Jack,

You hit it on the head.  The Smithsonian goes in small puffs 
depending on who is willing to donate money.  Look at how long the 
Enola Gay took to get on display and now only a portion of it.  I 
have nightmares regarding that last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I have a complete DDS system here, HUB, STC, end office dataport 
banks and every piece of equipment needed to deliver DDS to a medium 
size city.  It is in operating condition. Removed and sent here from 
the Telcordia School in Lisle (formerly BSCTE).

I have an example of most of the second generation dataphones and 
some of the first generations.

I have over 40 teletypewriters 1923-1986,  1,000 of parts, over 70 
volumes of documentation.  Three sets of tools spanning 1947 to 1986. 
Over 110 pieces of test equipment.

I have the knowledge to make most of this stuff operate.  Last 
August, as most of you know, I had a heart attack.  I am concerned. 
My dream started in 1984 I want to be alive to see it happen.

Am I crazy?  I hope not.

Don




>It's surprising that with all of the telegraph stuff that's always on Ebay
>that a museum couldn't spend the few bucks to have an entire system in
>operation.
>I recently purchased a neat circuit board that sends "What Hath God
>Wrought!" to a telegraph sounder. My Western Electric sounder worked the
>first time I wired it up to the board.
>
>*************
>
>This leads me to something that I have been wanting to mention to the
>Greenkeys gang and keep forgetting:
>
>Has anyone been to the Smithsonian lately? I finally got there for the first
>time in early December. While the air and space display is great, I couldn't
>find one Teletype. Then I went through another hall where there was all
>sorts of mechanical stuff, from vehicles through complete newpaper
>publishing displays...but not one Teletype. As I was getting towards the end
>of the display (and my wife got tired of me muttering "...there's no
>Teletypes!!"), I found a poor Model 28ASR labelled as a "police data
>terminal" or something like that. It had most of the keys missing or dropped
>into the keyboard shroud and the top plate of the TD was gone (and, oddly
>enough, it wasn't the plate that snaps off). Unfortunately, it sits pretty
>close where kids (another name for vandals) could get at it.
>Has anyone ever heard of any displays dedicated to
>telephone/telegraph/teletype at the Smithsonian? I do understand that they
>move the displays in and out and they can't show everything, but, heck, the
>"computer" display had more junk than real historically-important gear. I
>wonder if the idea behind the displays is to show things that no one ever
>saw versus what really made the difference to the growth of the country?
>I would hope that Don's stuff doesn't disappear like the old AT&T displays
>did years ago. Just remember that last scene from "Raiders of the Lost
>Ark"...!
>
>Jack WA2HWJ
>
>
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-- 
--------------------------------------------------------
Don Robert House, N.S.E.
Curator, NADCOMM
North American Data Communications Museum
3841 Reche Road
Fallbrook, CA 92028-3810
760-723-9943 Office
760-723-9984 FAX
URL: http://www.nadcomm.org
e-mail: drhouse@abac.com